382 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO IGQO. 



• stand upright, and then he can hear them drop as before mentioned ; and at 

 such times he has counted more than 100. He is now so disabled by these 

 stones that he cannot work, but in pain, and when he attempts it, he finds the 

 same night and the next day a great soreness in the bottom of his belly, and 

 voids large quantities of blood by stool. Before I saw him, he had been under 

 the hands of several quacks, some had vomited him with stibium, and purged 

 him, but could never bring one stone from him. 



I lately introduced the man to Dr. Fowke, who examined his case, and told 

 me he had never heard, or met with in books, any thing like it. 



This day, June 12, I saw Cobsill ; he looks better than he did when I left 

 the country. Dr. Davies was with me, and examined all the particulars herein 

 mentioned. 



Many people, continues Dr. Sloane, are of opinion, that the swallowing of 

 stones or pebbles is very beneficial to health, by helping the stomach to digest 

 their food. The reason of this, I suppose, is because they see birds languish, 

 ■ unless they swallow gravel or small stones, But I have always opposed this 

 practice in men, because though the stomachs or gizzards of birds, which have 

 no teeth to grind their food, are made very strong, muscular, and defended 

 in the inside with a coat, by the help of which, and these stones, their food is 

 ■ ground ; yet the stomach of men being very different, it is not reasonable to 

 think they should be of any use to them. I knew one Mr. Kingsmill, who 

 used to swallow for many years Q stones at a time, every day, without any in- 

 jury : they were near as large as walnuts, roundish and smooth, and he found 

 they always passed; but at last he died suddenly. 



Thoughts and Experiments on Vegetation. By John Woodward, M. D. F. R. S. 



N° 253, p. 193. 

 The ancients generally have ascribed to the earth the production of animals, 

 vegetables, and other bodies; for which reason it was that they gave it so fre- 

 quently the epithets of parent and mother. But several of the moderns have 

 given their suffrage in behalf of water. Lord Bacon is of opinion, that for 

 nourishment of vegetables the water is almost all in all ; and that the earth only 

 keeps the plant upright, and saves it from over heat and over cold. Others 

 assert that water is the only principle or ingredient in all natural things. They 

 suppose that, by some process of nature, water is transmuted into stones, 

 into plants, and all other substances whatever. Helmont particularly, and his 

 followers, are very positive in this, and offer some experiments to render it 

 credible. And Mr. Boylc tries these experiments over again, and discovers a 

 great propensity to the same opinion ; declaring lor this transmutation of water 

 into plants and other bodies, though with great modesty and deference. 



The experiments they insist upon are chiefly two: The first is, that mint and 



